Rehoming success stories

Grace Muir and her team have rehomed more than 300 former racehorses; here are just a few of their success stories.

PULSAAR

I Lewis - owner

We were put in touch with Grace “accidentally” in 2002 through a friend of ours who was looking at a horse at the time. We weren’t even looking for a horse!

Grace knew what we were looking for and contacted me on a Friday morning to say that Pulsaar was coming in that day – would we be interested in going to have a look? We arranged to go that evening and by 8pm the same day he was home with us – an impulse decision, but we had a good feeling about him. Pulsaar is by Hamas who himself is by the famous Danzig (Northern Dancer).

We’d had him 6 weeks when he had a freak accident in his field and sliced his near hind leg to the bone, severing one of his extensor tendons. Luckily, after months of veterinary treatment, he became rideable again and despite his long time off we were able to get straight back on and take him up the lane and back.

Pulsaar went from strength to strength and started eventing (BE) in 2005. We also affiliated to British Dressage at around the same time. He has been competing at intro and PN and the plan in the coming 2007 season is to take him to Novice. He’s doing well at BD as well and is usually placed at prelim and novice, and has accumulated a few points along the way. On the dressage side the plan is to compete him at unaffiliated novice and elementary and affiliated prelim and novice. Eventuall we hope to take him to intermediate BE and medium dressage – with a lot of hard work!

Grace knew what we wanted and found us a fantastic horse with an excellent, easy temperament. He is a horse of a lifetime and he has achieved more by the age of 7 that we ever expected. He has a home for life and I wouldn’t think twice about returning to North Farm Stud in the future.

JONMAR AND SAINT ZITA

Jessica Read - owner

“Following a feature on Grace Muir’s work in Horse and Hound on 30 January 2003, I rang her and found her to be most helpful and very patient in answering my many questions. Having had several disasters in the past trying to purchase horses from private vendors that were “not as described” I wanted to glean as much information over the phone as possible.

I visited North Farm Stud for the first time in July 2003 and was shown Jonmar, a half brother of the Grand National winner Numbersixvalverde; I rode him in the school, jumped him and hacked him out. An invitation followed to a combined training show to watch Jonmar compete there by one of Grace’s professional staff. Grace even managed to arrange for a three day event rider to give me a lesson on him.

I was smitten and in August 2003 became the proud owner of a quality show horse with movement to match. He was exactly as described and there were no hidden extras. I absolutely dote on him and in his first season he went cubbing 7 times, had 15 days hunting, went hunter trialling and has now won £120 under BSJA rules. Jonmar is so well suited to me, although Grace will always take the horse back if unsuitable, he will definitely stay with me for the rest of his life.

I was so impressed and pleased with my first purchase that I returned to North Farm Stud in January 2004 and bought a 3yo filly called Saint Zita, another stunning looking horse with beautiful movement. She has been show jumping and has qualified for Trailblazers second round. She is about to be registered with the BSJA and is currently jumping 1.20m at home.

Grace and her team are masters at preparing the horses for going on to amateur riders and being capable of competing in any sphere. I cannot thank them enough as I have two horses that mean so much to me and would always return to HEROS if I were looking for another.”